I am over the moon proud with this recipe! As you (may) know, I am the owner of a dedicated gluten-free cottage bakery, and it is not uncommon for me to take on orders for customers with additional allergies. Recently, I researched and developed this recipe for a little boy who was allergic to wheat, milk, eggs, and tree nuts, and who absolutely deserved the best birthday cake regardless! And so here it is, a gluten-free vegan birthday cake recipe, and a top-8 allergen-free recipe (or top 9 now if you count the newly added sesame seeds!)
In fact, let's review all the foods the FDA classifies as major allergens, so you get the full scope of how amazingly inclusive this recipe is!
- Milk
- Eggs
- Fish
- Crustacean Shelfish
- Tree Nuts (which actually include coconuts though it is a fruit)
- Peanuts
- Wheat
- Soybeans
- Sesame
So yep, this is a gluten-free nut-free dairy-free egg-free coconut-free cake! Except that it doesn't taste or feel like it's free of anything a good birthday cake should have. Honestly, chocolate is so delightful that an allergen-free chocolate cake does not feel like you're missing out on anything. I promise you, if you are baking for someone with several allergies, they will love this cake, and so will everyone else!
If you're looking for other gluten-free vegan recipes, you can check out my lemon cake, and strawberry cupcakes.
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Ingredients
In order to make this a truly top-8 allergen-free recipe, your ingredient choices are going to matter. Here are the three most important points:
- Gluten-free flour: please use my tested DIY blend, OR one of the recommended doctored blends in my How to Make an All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend.
- Chocolate chips: you must use an allergen-free chocolate, like the brand Enjoy Life. You may use a sweet or dark chocolate. I love their ingredients: chocolate, cane sugar, cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is the fat from the cacao plant seeds, it's non-dairy.
- Sprinkles: these are optional but of course, any child is going to want sprinkles! Be careful as most brands have soy. I use the brand Supernatural, their rainbow softies and starfetti are allergen-free.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Let's split the instructions into two categories: baking the cake, and frosting the cake.
Baking the Cake
While there are a lot of ingredients, it's a fairly straight-forward mix everything in one bowl recipe... well after prepping a few ingredients first. Let's dig in!
- Sift the gluten-free flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
- Make a flax egg by mixing the flaxseed meal and water.
- Create a mock yogurt substance by mixing the palm oil, pectin, cassava flour and rice milk together. Its purpose is to add moisture and fats.
- Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, in 30 seconds increments.
- Once fully melted, add the coffee and oil to the chocolate chips, and stir until luscious and homogeneous.
- To the dry sifted ingredients, add salt, flax egg, "yogurt", chocolate, and rice milk.
- Stir until a smooth batter is formed.
- Pour into cake pans.
- Bake at 325F for 30 minutes. Look at that beautiful rise!
Let cool fully on a rack before frosting.
Hint: make sure you grease your cake pans with an appropriate oil like avocado, palm or olive. I also recommend adding parchment paper to the bottom to prevent sticking.
Frosting the Cake
Because we want this be a completely allergen-free chocolate cake, we're not using a buttercream frosting; this is a simple chocolate water ganache. You can see that it's still possible to pipe it, after a few tricks that I'll share with you!
- Just as with baking the cake, let's melt the chocolate chips in the microwave.
- To make the ganache, add palm oil and rice milk to the melted chocolate, and mix until homogeneous.
- Put one cake layer on a cake board (optional, but recommended) and add a layer of chocolate ganache.
- Top with your preferred fruits. I think strawberries or cherries work best, though the blueberries were tasty too!
- Add the top cake layer.
- Frost the cake completely, including the sides, with the ganache.
- Store the remaining ganache in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, to harden for 20-30 minutes.
- Take the chocolate ganache out of the refrigerator and mix until it is smooth and pipeable.
- Place the ganache in a piping bag fitted with your favorite pip. Add some sprinkles and pipe decorations to your liking. I used a small open-star tip.
Hint: if you want to add sprinkles to the side of the cake, it's best to do it right after applying the chocolate ganache to the side (step 6) while it's still wet and sticky. Simply take a handful of sprinkles, and stick them to the side. It will be messy, but the sprinkles should stick well!
Substitutions
This gluten-free vegan birthday cake is already a top-8 allergen free recipe! If you have other sensitivities, please leave a comment and we can try to figure it out! Common sensitivities I often deal with at my cottage bakery are:
- Corn - to make the recipe corn-free, omit corn starch and replace with gluten-free flour instead. You'll also need to use a corn-free baking powder, like Gefen.
- Rice - you'll need to make a DIY gluten-free flour blend without rice. My recommendation would be to make the following replacements in my flour recipe: sub out brown rice for millet, and white rice for sorghum. You'll also need to use a different plant-based milk, like oat milk.
Variations
I would not change too much in this particular recipe, but you can certainly customize the toppings!
- Fruits - try mangoes, or cherries between the cake layers!
- White chocolate - you could try a white chocolate ganache! Use Pascha white chocolate chips, which are free of all major allergens.
Equipment
This allergen-free recipe was designed with two 6-inch cake pans. You'll also need a microwavable bowl to melt the chocolate chips, and if desired, a piping bag and tip. I used a small open star tip.
Storage
This gluten-free vegan birthday cake is shelf-stable for up to two days. However, if you use the optional fresh fruits between cake layers, it should be refrigerated. It's best served at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving.
Beyond two days, wrap leftovers in plastic, store in an airtight container, and freeze for up to a month. When ready to eat, you can thaw the cake on the counter, or in the fridge if you used fresh fruit toppings.
Top tip
Hardening the chocolate ganache in the refrigerator is a tricky step, as you want the ganache to harden only slightly to make it pipeable. Fortunately, it's just cosmetic! If your mind is set on piping the ganache, be patient, and definitely take the time to remix it after refrigeration so it is smooth and pipeable.
FAQ
The flax egg in this recipe is for structure. Egg proteins and gluten give baked goods a lot of structure, and so a recipe without both requires another source of structure. Replacing the flax egg with apple sauce, a common egg replacer, will not work here: apple sauce's role is moisture, not structure. So a good alternative would be: chia egg, or corn starch. Corn starch has a high amylose content, and gelatinizes well on heating, giving structure to the final product.
The FDA classifies 9 foods as the most common allergens, as they cause over 90% of food allergies. They are: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, sesame and soybeans. Fortunately, this is a top-8 allergen-free recipe (well top 9, since sesame is a new addition to the most common allergens list).
As the owner of a dedicated gluten-free cottage bakery, I've experimented A LOT with gluten-free flours. I make my own DIY mix now, and I'm very proud of my formulation. One of the downfalls of gluten-free cakes is people often say they're dry, and crumbly. My DIY mix incorporates high water-absorption flours that will keep the cake moist, and a synergetic mix of hydrocolloids for structure, which is especially important in vegan baking where there's no eggs. Check out my gluten-free flour mix!
Related
Looking for other low allergen-recipes? Check these out!
Gluten-Free Vegan Birthday Cake
Equipment
- 2 six-inch round cake pans lined with parchment paper
- 1 microwave proof bowl
- 1 piping bag and tip optional (I used a small open-star tip)
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 190 grams gluten-free flour please click through for appropriate mixes
- 20 grams corn starch
- 40 grams cocoa powder
- 6 grams baking powder
- 3.8 grams baking soda
- 200 grams sugar
- 4.5 grams salt
Flax Egg
- 14 grams flaxseed meal
- 75 grams water
Mock Yogurt
- 3 grams pectin
- 5 grams cassava flour
- 30 grams rice milk
- 12 grams palm oil
Liquid Ingredients
- 110 grams chocolate chips allergen-free, like Enjoy Life
- 70 grams canola oil
- 175 grams brewed coffee hot
- 100 grams rice milk
- 7 grams vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache
- 280 grams chocolate chips allergen-free, like Enjoy Life
- 70 grams rice milk
- 16 grams palm oil
- 42 grams sprinkles optional, allergen-free like Supernatural
- 40 grams fresh fruit optional
Instructions
Baking the Cake
- Line and grease two 6-inch cake pans.
- In a large bowl, sift the gluten-free flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Add the salt and sugar, mix well and set aside.
- Prepare the flax egg by mixing the water and flaxseed meal. Set aside. It takes a few minutes to absorb and thicken.
- Mix all the mock yogurt ingredients together and set aside. Its purpose is to add extra moisture and fats.
- In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips in 30 second bursts, until the chocolate melts and is smooth.
- Add the canola oil, brewed hot coffee, rice milk and vanilla extract to the melted chocolate chips.
- Mix well until the mixture is close to homogeneous.
- To the dry ingredients, add the chocolate mixture, the flax egg and the mock yogurt.
- Mix the batter well. I prefer a hand mixer rather than electric, as to not overmix (this affects the gums in gluten-free flours and can make for a too gooey batter).
- Preheat the oven to 325 °F (163 °C)
- Let the batter rest and absorb moisture while the oven preheats.
- Pour the chocolate batter into the two prepared (well greased with an allergen-free oil like palm) cake pans.
- Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.
- The cake is ready when a finger does not leave a lasting impression, and the top of the cake presents resistance to the pressure of a finger. An inserted toothpick is likely to come out chocolatey, since we used melted chocolate chips in the batter.
- Take out of the oven, and let the cake rest in its pan for 5 minutes, before turning it onto a cooling rack. Fully cool before frosting.
Making the Chocolate Ganache
- Microwave the chocolate chips in 30 second bursts, until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Add the rice milk and palm oil, and mix until fully homogeneous.
- Coat the bottom layer of the cake with chocolate ganache. Add the optional fresh fruits or jam, my preference being fresh strawberries or fresh cherries.
- Add the top layer, and fully cover the cake in chocolate ganache.
- If you want to add sprinkles to decorate, this is the time! They will adhere to the sides of the cake well when the ganache is still wet.
- Place the leftover ganache in plastic wrap in a cup, and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes (this step is optional, only necessary if you'd like to pipe decorations).
- Place the chocolate ganache in a mixing bowl, and using an electric mixer or hand mixer, smooth it out until it reaches a pipeable consistency.
- Fit your piping bag with the desired piping tip and decorate the top of the cake as desired.
- Cut and enjoy!
Naelle @ GlutenFreeDIYers
I'm so proud of this recipe and really excited to share! I want nothing more than making yummy birthday cakes accessible for kiddos with lots of allergies. Please let me know how your baking goes!
Susan Scherr
Do u ship? Would love to try ur products. O know u r not close to me!
Naelle @ GlutenFreeDIYers
I have a cottage food license in California, which allows me to ship baked goods within CA. However, I don't ship my products (I don't use preservatives). I have shipped dry baking mixes before, which have a much longer shelf life.
DK
This is just perfect! We were looking for a gluten free, vegan birthday cake and this recipe really hits the mark! And it tasted fabulous!
Paula
Made this for a party where several of the attendees have allergies. So good!!
Carrie Robinson
Love that this cake is allergen friendly! :) Who doesn't love a good chocolate cake?
Kerri
This was so delicious! I couldn’t even tell that it was allergen free!
Gianne
The recipe was easy to follow and the cake turned out incredibly moist and flavorful. It's a perfect allergy-friendly dessert option!